The Pentagon’s Contracting Gurus Mismanaged Their Own Contracts
The Pentagon’s contracting gurus repeatedly made massive, preventable mistakes while managing contracts for a critical software project of their own, violating federal budget law along the way, according to scathing internal reports and other records obtained by the Project... Read more
The Forgotten Tale of How Allied Bombers Chased a German Sub to Its Doom
In June 2018, Spanish media reported that divers Anxi González Roca and Eduardo Losada... Read more
New Spy Drone Flies Non-Stop for a Month
Airbus’s Zephyr solar-powered drone flew for 25 days straight during a test-flight over Yuma,... Read more
In the 1980s, the Pentagon Was Desperate to Avoid Nuking the Middle East
In a secluded section of MacDill Air Force Base, four miles south of Tampa,... Read more
The Jewish Card Shark Who Became a Chinese General
“I can go into China whenever I wish to,” Morris Cohen bragged to a... Read more
When I first traveled to Israel-Palestine in 1994, during the heady early days of the Oslo peace process, I...
Space Marines With Jetpacks!
This story originally appeared on March 22, 2015. In the early Space Age, everything seemed possible — no matter...
Politics Could Scuttle America’s New Icebreakers
The U.S. Coast Guard is on the cusp of finally acquiring new icebreakers, 42 years after commissioning its only...
Disarming an Atomic Bomb Is the Worst Job in the World
This story originally appeared on April 5, 2015. In the spring of 1952, the U.S. government tested tactical nuclear...
‘The ‘Stan’ Is a Collection of Short Comics About a Long War
There was a time, around 2013 or so, that I secretly worried that the Afghanistan war might end. Yeah,...
‘Peppermint’ Is the Shittiest Punisher Movie I’ve Ever Seen
In 2012, Thomas Jane starred in Dirty Laundry—a 10-minute short film where he played Frank Castle, the Punisher, and...
After Donald Trump
Donald Trump’s tenure as the 45th U.S. president may last another few weeks, another year or another 16 months. ...
Go to War With a U.S. Army Medic in ‘Machete Squad’
“Though rough around the edges, this episodic tale of military life has a gritty honesty, like a guy at...
The Kurds Are All But Defenseless Against Air Attack
In late August 2018 a rumor circulated that U.S. military forces in Syria were acquiring radars for an air-defense...
Holding the Line on Torture
Sometimes the good guys do win. That’s what happened on Aug. 8, 2018 in San Francisco when the Council...
These Officials Let 9/11 Happen
Powerful people, whose job it was to protect the U.S. public, made choices that facilitated the 9/11 attacks, according...
The U.S. Navy’s New Carrier Drone Borrows 1970s Stealth
The U.S. Navy’s new MQ-25 Stingray aerial-refueling drone bears an uncanny resemblance to an experimental U.S. military plane from...
Tijuana’s Morgue Is Overflowing
Forensic authorities in Tijuana are overwhelmed by an unprecedented wave of violence. Buried in mass graves without being identified,...
Remember When Australia Pretend-Nuked a Rainforest?
This story originally appeared on Aug. 22, 2015. During the Cold War, nuclear states tested atomic weapons in almost...
A Simple Equation Proves the U.S. Armed Forces Have Triumphed in the War on Terror
4,000,000,029,057. Remember that number. It’s going to come up again later. But let’s begin with another number entirely. 145,000...
